More progress on code academy is going well.  I'm just learning about functions - how to declare them and call them - a very useful concept and also available in basically all other programming languages.  I've also been told about interrupts which I think are so cool.  Interrupts are basically a subroutine (function) that is automatically called based on some form of input or a clock (timer).

From http://tldp.org/LDP/tlk/dd/interrupts.html

Google Chrome Experiments

I have just found out about the Google Chrome experiments - some new uses of JavaScript.  I especially liked the 'All Is Not Lost' (on the right) by OK Go - some very creative choreographers who also have some awesome videos on YouTube,  and Pilobolus.

What is JavaScript?

Currently I am doing a course in JavaScript.  JavaScript is a simple code which is used in making webpages.  We have only just touched base on it at the moment, but I can tell you that it is different to C and basic in that it the is given to the browser as the source code, which means that your browser has to compile it before it displays it on the screen, unlike C, which is compiled before it is released as software, so the user doesn't normally get to see or change the source, unless it is opensource (such as Firefox or Linux).

Introduction and Christmas light projects

Hi all
My name is Andrew.  I am quite interested in writing programs - which I have done a fair bit of through writing programs for robots using graphical programming, C and basic.  I have moved from robots to modifying Christmas lights and getting a picaxe chip programmed with basic to control them.  Here's a video of what this does:

This year I am using a different chip - the Atmel tiny programmed with C, to control a bus of 74HC4094N's (made by Phillips or NXP) using clock pulse and data wires to transmit the signal along.  To see how the 74HC's do this, visit the NXP website and check out the datasheets available for the 74HC.